Pet chews can be made by treating by-products from cattle and other animals to produce hardened substances which are good for pets to chew on. For example, "artificial bones" for pets to chew on can be made from rawhide. To make the pet chews the rawhide is treated and shaped so it mimics natural bone. Other pet chews are made by treating cattle skin or other skin parts and then grinding them into meal. With this method the skin meal is combined with an appropriate binder, and then the mixture is molded into a suitable shape. The molded shapes are subsequently subjected to pressure or a combination of pressure and heat so that products assume the shape of the mold and become a solid mass. Other chews for pets are made by cooking cattle tendons, removing any adhering meat and fat, and then baking the tendons until they are completely hardened.
Although the pet chew products described above are suitable for pets to chew on, the methods of making them are labor and energy intensive. It is desirable to cut these labor and energy costs so that the resulting pet chew products can be produced more economically. It is an object of the present invention to provide new methods for manufacturing pet chews. The new methods should not require that the animal by-products be ground and mixed with a binder before the substances can be brought into a form and size suitable for use as a pet chew product. It is another object of the invention to avoid the need to cook the animal by-products in order to remove the appendant fat and meat and render the by-products suitable for use as pet chews.